MI6 has exclusive access to the
newly republished James Bond novels, featuring an
insightful
and historical look back at how Ian Fleming created
a legend...

Unwrapping The New Fleming Hardbacks (1)23rd May 2008

On 28th May 2008, new editions of all of Ian
Fleming’s classic James Bond books are published by Penguin
to mark the centenary of his birth and to coincide with publication
of the brand new Bond book Devil
May Care by Sebastian Faulks.
The fourteen original books will be published in hardback priced
at £14.99 with eye
catching new covers created by the designers
Michael Gillette and Jon Gray. This incredibly desirable
series of books is just part of an exciting programme of events
and
publications celebrating the life of the creator the world’s
most famous spy. Since the publication of Casino Royale in 1953,
over 100 million Bond books have been sold. Unwrapping
The New Fleming Hardbacks (2)

Casino RoyaleIan Fleming stated that Casino
Royale was inspired by certain incidents that took place
during
his
career at the Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty,
particularly a wartime incident at the casino in Estoril
in Portugal. He wrote the book at Goldeneye – where
he went on to write all the other Bond books – in the
run-up to his marriage to Ann Rothermere. Fleming maintained
that he wrote it to take his mind off getting married, but
he must have been thinking about it for some time since when
a friend asked what he was going to do when the War was over
he’d replied ‘write the spy story to end all
spy stories’. He may also have been spurred into
it by the fact that his brother Peter had written a satirical
novel about the security services the year before.

Live And Let DieTo make Live
And Let Die’s investigation
into the American criminal underworld as authentic as possible,
Ian Fleming spent time with detectives in New York’s
Harlem and then, together with his wife Ann, undertook
the journey to Florida on the Silver Phantom Pullman train
in January 1953; a trip that Bond embarks on with Solitaire
in the novel. Live and Let Die’s working title was ‘The
Undertaker’s Wind’, which reflected Fleming’s
intention of putting to good use his familiarity with caribbean
life and history.

Moonraker
In writing Moonraker, Ian Fleming did extensive research on rockets, via the
British Interplanetary Society and his friend Joan Bright’s writers’ research
agency, and even consulted a psychiatrist about the characteristics of megalomaniacs
for the character of Hugo Drax. Above all, though, it was the Bond creator’s
opportunity to write beautifully about the England he loved. Alternative
titles for the novel were The Infernal Machine, Wide of the Mark and The
Inhuman Element.

Diamonds Are Forever
Ian Fleming spent time in Saratoga Springs researching
Diamonds
Are Forever in 1954 and it was during this trip
that he first came across the ‘Studillac’ – the
car Felix Leiter drives in the novel. (It was owned by
Billy Woodward, millionaire racehorse owner whose later
accidental shooting by his wife Ann was the basis of the
Truman Capote novella Answered Prayer.) On a later trip
Fleming drove one himself, and got pulled over for speeding.
Fleming also crossed the US by train later the same year,
from
New York to Chicago to Los Angeles, and then flew
to Las Vegas. The slot machine selling oxygen that Bond
sees at the airport was actually there – one of many
authentic details from research trips that made their way
into the books.

From Russia With LoveFrom Russia With
Love was very nearly the last James Bond novel.
In a letter to friend and admirer Raymond Chandler, Ian Fleming
worried that he was running out of ideas; it can’t have helped
that while the books were popular he had yet to break the key American
market. It is no surprise therefore that he spent more time writing
and polishing this novel than any other Bond book. He even took
the unusual step of leaving the survival of his hero in doubt at
the end. Fleming went to Istanbul for the Sunday Times to cover
the Interpol Conference in September 1955 and used this opportunity
to scope
out a new location for Bond. He left Istanbul on the Orient Express,
of which he had a romantic but very outdated view – the
train had no restaurant car and he had to take a basket of provisions
for the three-day trip. Truman Capote stayed at Goldeneye during
the writing of From Russia With Love while President John F Kennedy
later put it
in his top ten favourite books in Life magazine.

Dr No
In May 1956, Ian Fleming received a letter from gun expert
Geoffery Boothroyd, who described Bond’s beretta as
a ‘ladies gun’. The two struck up a correspondence
which was to last throughout Fleming’s lifetime, and
in Dr No, Bond is duly equipped with a Walther PPK by the
secret service’s armourer – one Major Boothroyd.
That winter, the Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden and his
wife stayed at Goldeneye in the aftermath of Suez. Fleming
took inspiration for the story from a trip to Inagua – an
isolated island between Jamaica and Haiti, which is home
to a flamingo colony.

Goldfinger
Part of Ian Fleming’s extensive research for Goldfinger included a questionnaire sent to an expert at the livery
Goldsmiths’ Company in the City of London asking
questions about every aspect of gold, including whether
or not it has a smell. Since the Bond novels are chock full
of the author’s
own obsessions and interests, Fleming made Bond and his
villain cross clubs on the golf course. A friend, John
Blackwell, provided tips on how both players bend the rules
in order to win and Fleming repaid the favour by using
Blackwell’s name for a character involved in the
heroin trade.